A simplified steam-driven electric power generation system diagram is illustrated in FIG. 1. Feed pump 102 supplies feed water to boiler 104 where the water is heated and processed to produce superheated steam (in a change state process) that is fed to steam turbine 106. Rotation of the turbine's output shaft 106a produces electric power from attached generator 108. The steam that turned turbine 106 is exhausted into condenser 110 where the steam is covered to condensate water and fed to boiler 104 to continue a process that can be based, for example, upon the Rankine cycle.
Boiler 104 typically transfers energy to the supplied water by the chemical reaction of burning some type of fossil fuel. Utility-size steam turbine-driven generators can range in hundreds to thousands of megawatts and require significant quantities of fossil fuels to produce the superheated steam for spinning the steam turbine.
While the working fluid in the Rankine cycle is water, alternative fluids with a liquid-vapor phase change, or boiling point, occurring at temperatures lower than the water-steam phase change can also be used in a turbine-driven electric power generation system in a similar type process. Therefore the terminology “fluid-driven,” “fluid liquid state” and “fluid vapor state” is used herein to be inclusive not only of the terms “steam-driven,” “water” and “steam,” respectively, but also other fluids that could be used in a change state process that may be similar to a Rankine cycle-like process for producing electric power by utilizing a fluid-driven turbine as the prime mover for the electric generator.
Waste heat recovery apparatus can be used to replace some of the functions of a boiler in the above electric power generation system. However such apparatus may require a liquid input with absorbed latent heat that is greater than that normally provided in the system. Thus a source of heat is required to supply the additional latent heat to the liquid.
It is one object of the present invention to provide a fluid latent heat absorption electric induction heater for use in utility-size turbine-driven electric power generation systems without a fossil fuel boiler.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a method of raising the temperature of a fluid used in fluid-driven turbines for utility-size turbine-driven electric power generation systems with a fluid latent heat absorption electric induction heater.